PORTLAND – A Westbrook methadone clinic denied Friday that a Topsham woman who was found guilty of operating while under the influence of the heroin substitute had been at the clinic before her arrest last year.

Jordan Levasseur, 20, was not a patient at CAP Quality Care on May 10, 2002, the date that she was stopped for driving erratically on Interstate 95, said Stephen Cotreau, CAP Quality Care’s clinical director.

A urine test revealed that Levasseur had methadone in her system, according to testimony by a drug recognition expert.

Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said Thursday she was troubled by the case and found it hard to fathom how the clinic could give anyone methadone and advise them that it was safe to drive.

Cotreau said methadone does not impair cognitive functions and that Anderson’s comments reflect an alarming ignorance of methadone and its use in treating addicts.

“Numerous epidemiological studies have confirmed that methadone does not impair driving skills and that methadone patients are not involved in driving accidents at greater rates than the general public,” he said.

Cotreau said Anderson’s alarmist statement that patients in methadone treatment pose a public safety risk was preposterous.

“If we are going to address the disturbing and complex issue of drug addiction in our society, we need to do it with facts – not with political posturing and scare tactics that only lead to dangerous misperceptions about this issue,” he said.

Responding to Cotreau’s statement, Anderson said Levasseur had represented herself as a CAP Quality Care patient and said she had taken her methadone dose before her arrest.

Levasseur’s symptoms, including unsteady balance, apparent confusion, high pulse rate and leg tremors, were consistent with those of someone whose methadone may not have been properly dosed, the prosecutor said.